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The "Frasers" of 1759 and of 1775
readily courted danger or death in that great duel which was to graft
progress and liberty on that loved emblem of Canada, the pride of its
forests—the Maple Tree. If at times, one feels pained at the ferocity
which marked the conflict and which
won for Fraser’s Highlanders at Quebec, the
name of Les Sauvages d’Ecosse, t one feels relieved, seeing that
the meeting was inevitable, that, the sturdy sons of Caledonia in Levis’
heroic Grenadiers,* did find a foe worthy of their steel. Scotchmen, on
the field of Ste. Foye, in deadly
encounter
the said meeting to be held on the
second Thursday in the month of May next, at ten o’clock in the
forenoon, in such place in the City of Ottawa, as will then be designated.
To be the Chief of the Province of
Quebec:
The Honorable JOHN FRASER DE BERRY,
Esquire, one of the members of the Legislative Council of the said
Province, &c., being the fifty-eighth descendant. of Jules de Berry, a
rich and powerful lord (seigneur) who feasted sumptuously the Emperor
Charlemagne, and his numerous suite, at his castle in Normandy, in the
eighth century.
II. For the following electoral
division:
LAUZON,—THOMAS FRASER, Esquire,
farmer, of Point Levis.
KENNEBEC,—SIMON FRASER, Esquire, of St. Croix.
DE LA DURANTAYE,—ALEXANDER FRASER, Esquire, farmer, of St Valier.
LES LAURENTIDES,—WILLLAM FRASER, Esquire, of Lake St. John, Chicoutimi.
GRANDVILLE, —JEAN ETIENNE FRASER, Esquire, Notary.
GREEN ISLAND, STADACONA,—ALEXANDER FRASER, Esquire, Notary, St. Roch,
Quebec.
The meeting having voted thanks to
the president and secretary, then adjourned. ALEX. FRASER. (President)
OMER FRASER, Secretary. (Quebec Morning
Choronicle, February 8, 1868.")
t The kilted Highlanders of 1759 were popularly known
among the peasants as "Les petites Jupes." Most exaggerated stories
were circulated as to their ferocity. The following was one of the most
accredited opinions :—.-"The Highlanders would neither give nor take
quarter; they were so nimble that no man could catch them, so nobody could
escape them, no one had a chance against their broad swords. With the
ferocity natural to savages they made no prisoners, and spared neither
man, woman, nor child."
* A curious hand to hand
fight between the Highlanders and French Grenadiers took place on the 28th
April, 1760, at Dumont’s Mill, on the site adjoining Mr. J. W. Dunscomb’s
house, on the St. Foye Road. |
